Upheaval in top judiciary
\nResignation sent to the president for approval; Justice Ahsan was slated to become the next chief justice of Pakistan
\nISLAMABAD
\nIn a rare development, the Supreme Court\u2019s second senior-most judge after the incumbent chief justice, Ijaz Ul Ahsan, resigned on Thursday.
\nAhsan, who would become the next chief justice of Pakistan after incumbent CJP Qazi Faez Isa, has sent his resignation to President Arif Alvi, raising questions over his untimely departure.
\nThe major event comes within a day of Justice (retd) Sayyed Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvi\u2019s resignation, which has also been accepted by the president today.
\nAhsan would have become the chief justice \u2014 the highest judicial office in the country that comes with supreme power \u2014 after CJP Isa\u2019s term concluded in October this year as Justice Tariq Masood, the senior puisne judge, would hang his robes before that.
\nIn his resignation to the president, Ahsan said he no longer wished to continue as the top court\u2019s judge, therefore, he was resigning under Article 206(1) of the Constitution with immediate effect.
\nBoth the judges were considered \u2018close\u2019 to former CJP Umar Ata Bandial, with analysts saying that the jurists were involved in issuing controversial orders \u2014 along with another judge, Justice Munib Akhtar.
\nWhile Bandial was in office, the fault lines between the top court\u2019s judges were visible. This trend diminished when CJP Isa came to the helm, but the damage had already been done.
\nSenior journalist Hamid Mir told Geo News that two references were being drafted against Ahsan, of which he might have caught wind, leading him to adopt \u201ca way out\u201d i.e. skip accountability.
\n\u201cThis wasn\u2019t unexpected; lawyers were already talking about it. Had he remained in office, he would be facing two separate references,\u201d Mir, a seasoned journalist, added.
\n\u201cThis is a good thing. There is nothing concerning about it. A new tradition has begun: the Supreme Court judges who misused their offices are facing references filed by lawyers,\u201d Mir also said.
\nRaising concerns, senior anchorperson Shahzeb Khanzada wondered why would a person who would become the CJP in 10 months resign prematurely.
\n\u201cIf he feared that he would face charges, then he should have stayed and faced them like Qazi Faez Isa did,\u201d Khanzada said.
\nIn April last year, a lawyer filed a reference before the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) against then-CJP Bandial and three other judges \u2014 Justice Ahsan, Justice Akhtar, and Justice Naqvi.
\nThe complainant based his reference on an alleged violation of the Code of Conduct for judges of the superior judiciary issued by the SJC on September 2, 2009.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Upheaval in top judiciary Resignation sent to the president for approval; Justice Ahsan was slated to become the next chief justice of Pakistan ISLAMABAD In a rare development, the Supreme Court\u2019s second senior-most judge after the incumbent chief justice, Ijaz Ul Ahsan, resigned on Thursday. Ahsan, who would become the next chief justice of Pakistan […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":380219,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-380187","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-top-news"},"yoast_head":"\n